Saturday, February 5, 2011

On Monday at school all my students were talking about the weather reports and how they were hoping for a snow day on Tuesday. I thought, "Sweet kids. They always think they're getting a day off. I would love one too, but let's be honest... this is Texas." The administration even made an announcement that everyone should take home all their books in case we didn't have school the next day. "Great," I thought, "Maybe I'll get to sleep in one day."

That afternoon was the last time I drove.

Five days ago.

We have been iced-in, snowed-in, space-heater hugging, eight-layer-wearing ever since.

I have never seen the roads this icy in my life.... at least not for this long.

We felt so bad for the dog that we went out and bought her a sweater and little boots to keep her feet from freezing. She surprisingly seems not to mind. I think even Marin knew it was unnaturally cold outside and that she needed help.

Normal life became an adventure this week. On Tuesday, we didn't have consistent power in the house due to "rolling blackouts" in North Texas. Evan busted out his camping stove and we boiled water for our french press to get our caffeine for the day. We ended up leaving the house since the heat wasn't on... no reason to sit inside shivering when we could go outside and do the same thing!

Walking the dog for thirty minutes became an hour long process because it took us forever to get dressed properly. I wore my skiing long underwear everyday for the past four days. They are awesome. They're called Hot Chillys and that makes me smile every time I put them on.

Driving became our big concern. It was all you saw on the news -- for days-- cars spinning out, wrecks on major highways, lots and lots of unintentional swerving...

Evan lives for moments like this.

Every day around 9 am, he wanted to get out of the house and drive. Thankfully, he's really good at handling crazy roads, but he even tensed up a few times as either we slid across icy patches or someone else was spinning out right behind us.

Also on Tuesday, we lost our hot water. Frozen pipe or something. We had cold water, but that doesn't do much good. I didn't realize how many things require hot water.

Dishwasher.

Shower.

Laundry.

Our house was getting dirtier and so were we. This ongoing snow-cation was quickly turning into a bad camping experience for me.

Evan bundled up to take Marin for a walk. He looks like he's going to rob something while he's out.

We kept our cool (no pun intended) and embraced the situation. We showered at sympathetic friends' houses. We took way too many pictures of our cute, snow-hating dog. We boiled water on the stove to wash our dishes. We went out to eat a lot and took naps to keep boredom at bay. We tried to imagine who left a snow angel in our front yard... no suspects yet.

On our way home from hanging out with Anna and Luis on Friday, Evan and I were ready for the snow to melt and hot showers to be an option again. Evan prayed in the car that there would be running, hot water when we got home.

Since we had washed dishes the night before, the stopper was still in the sink. Since we'd had frozen pipes for 3 days, the faucet handle was all the way on, but nothing had been coming out all week until...

I walked in the door and saw a steady stream of water coming out of the kitchen faucet. I was elated!

"Babe, your prayer worked!" I yelled at Evan who was behind me. I ran over to the kitchen sink and then saw what else was happening. We had been gone for 3 hours and our sink was full and overflowing onto the floor. Awesome.

We frantically cleaned up the mess, used all the towels we own, and rescued our drowned cleaning supplies from the cabinet under the sink. After about five minutes of intense activity, Evan turned the water back on, waited a few seconds, and then said, "its getting hot!"

The Lord answered our prayer! No busted pipes. No leaks. Just a little mess to deal with.

We are still snowed in somewhat. We are dodging the precarious icicles on our porch and and wearing rain boots to avoid the slush. But now... we can do laundry, wash dishes and shower. We are back in business. Snow is so much more enjoyable when you and your house are clean!